The Commandments of God:
Are They Burdensome? Are They Abolished?   corniebanman.com   May The Truth Be Known.
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These Pharisees were the fathers and elders also of Paul and Peter as they testify in many Scriptures. And according to these Scriptures, this would apply to all traditionalists.

Satan will never tell the truth, unless it is a setup for a lie.

Paul reminds the people of Galatia about those heathen-pagan ways that they had followed before he converted them:

Howbeit then, when ye knew not God, ye did service unto them which by nature are no gods. But now, after that ye have known God, or rather are known of God, how turn ye again to the weak and beggarly elements, whereunto ye desire again to be in bondage? Ye observe days, and months, and times, and years (Gal. 4:8—10).

This phrase (and verse 3) is being used by the Protestant system in such a way as if Paul had severed them from God's laws and commandments earlier, thus implying that he is now afraid that they will go back to keeping them again. This is what the traditional Christians need it to mean to support their "law-done-away" doctrines. Remember what Paul said in Romans 8:7: The carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God. Mankind hates rules and laws, especially when coming from God, because we don't like authoritative rules. We like them to be very flexible, and un-authoritative; ear-tickling (2 Tim. 4:3). Paul says that this is a true test of spirituality: if we don't love God's laws, we are yet thinking carnally. If we love them, they dwell in us. And if we hate the laws, we inevitably hate their giver. We will always say that we love God, right? But if we hate and reject His laws, our love for the Lawgiver cannot be true: And hereby we do know that we know him, if we keep his commandments. He that saith, I know him, and keepeth not his commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him (1 John 2:3—4). By calling God's laws weak and beggarly elements of the world, traditional Christians imply that Paul, God's apostle, is a hypocrite. That would be about as close as it can get to blasphemy for Paul to label God's moral and spiritual laws and commandments by such terms, the same laws that he said must be kept because they are holy, just, and good, wherefore the doers of them would be justified. Does Paul contradict himself? Absolutely not. He's addressing post-Gentile people. It's clear that he's not referring to God's laws and commandments or His holy days. He said, before they knew God, they were doing service to the gods which were not gods by nature, which could be only pagan gods. He says these people did not know God before their conversion, wherefore they would not have known of God's commandments, laws, or Holy days.

God condemns observing times. Nowhere does He condemn the keeping of His Holy days and Sabbaths but commands us to keep them. Neither does He call the keeping of them as observing times. Surely Paul cannot be condemning the keeping of God's Holy days, as billions are taught to believe. He kept them as the Lord taught him. It is obvious that Paul is talking about observing times and the pagan holidays of old. Paul referred to Leviticus 19 and Deuteronomy 18 when he summarized Galatians 4:10, which is in the middle of the old covenant: Ye shall not eat any thing with the blood: neither shall ye use enchantment, nor observe times (Lev. 19:26). Therefore shall ye observe all my statutes, and all my judgments, and do them: I am the LORD (Lev. 19:37). There shall not be found among you any one that maketh his son or his daughter to pass through the fire, or that useth divination, or an observer of times, or an enchanter, or a witch (Deut. 18:10). For these nations, which thou shalt possess, hearkened unto observers of times, and unto diviners: but as for thee, the LORD thy God hath not suffered thee so to do (Deut. 18:14). God commanded His children to keep His Holy days and statutes, while He condemned observing times. Paul knew how God hated for the people to celebrate pagan deities.

There are a few Scriptures that some will quote in an effort to prove that God no longer wants His holy days observed. One that is frequently cited is Isaiah 1:14: Your new moons and your appointed feasts my soul hateth: they are a trouble unto me; I am weary to bear them. Read the whole chapter, and you will see that God was fed up with the way they were trying to worship Him by and through pagan deities. That's why He says your new moons and your appointed feasts. This was after the account of the golden calf (Exod. 32:5-6). Later people like Jeroboam put their gods in the temple and changed the timing of God's feast and worship days: So he offered upon the altar which he had made in Bethel the fifteenth day of the eighth month, even in the month which he had devised of his own heart; and ordained a feast unto the children of Israel: and he offered upon the altar, and burnt incense (1 Kings 12:33). Jeroboam made priests of non-Levites, who were classified as the lowest people (verse 31). God hated their own devising of the timing of His feast days and their own ideas of gods to worship and their selecting of forbidden people to serve as His priests. That's what angered God. I believe that He had the modern-day Christian holidays and worship days in mind, most of which were already being celebrated during that time. God had Isaiah write about 'your' new moons and 'your' appointed feasts about 600 BC. About 630 years later, the Messiah still practiced the 'Feasts of the LORD' and 'His' Sabbaths, as God calls them: Speak unto the children of Israel, and say unto them, Concerning the feasts of the LORD, which ye shall proclaim to be holy convocations, even these are my feasts. Six days shall work be done: but the seventh day is the sabbath of rest, an holy convocation; ye shall do no work therein: it is the sabbath of the LORD in all your dwellings. These are the feasts of the LORD, even holy convocations, which ye shall proclaim in their seasons (Lev 23:2-4). God calls the weekly and annual Sabbaths 'HIS' days and feasts, and half a century after the resurrection, the apostles still practiced them.